


Airport

by Bamboozlesophie



Category: Hippo Campus (Band)
Genre: Airplanes, Anxiety, Dick Jokes, Drinking, Jacking off, Panic Attacks, boner jokes, masturbation but not graphic, swearing I cant help it, sweet baby boys, touchy old ladies, underage drinking for americans but we in the uk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-17
Updated: 2020-09-06
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:15:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24231187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bamboozlesophie/pseuds/Bamboozlesophie
Summary: Hippo Campus, flying to london, if they can get on the plane. There's old ladies, peeing, anxiety, milkshakes, and hand holding. So buckle up, we have lift off.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 7





	1. Chapter 1

Whistler was in the bathroom, leaving everyone else in the van outside waiting. Nathan had driven over to the house to pick up Zach and Whistler on time, but getting to the airport in a timely fashion was going to be challenging. Jake was already at the airport, he said he had gotten there earlier that morning because he had nothing better to do.

Whistler ran out to the van with his last suitcase in hand, but had to run back up to the door to kiss Demi. Hopping back in the van he yelled "Drive, what are you waiting for?"

"We were waiting for you" Nathan retorts; he's a real piece of work, that Whistler. Nathan turned the radio on to a tape Zach had made, all Sugar Ray, Sum 41, and Smash Mouth.

Zach was quietly eating sun chips in the backseat, holding his backpack as a pillow. Looking out the window, he sat for almost an hour; until they got to the airport.

When they arrived, they had to haul not only luggage, but their instruments as well. Zach had a bag with his favorite bass in it. His 5 stringed bass, the same one he had been using since he was 12. He had a hard time letting anyone else touch it let alone fly across an ocean. Nathan had his guitar in an expensive case, a leather one with a hard interior. Anything to protect his Gretsch. And Whistler was shipping a high hat, a drum head, and was told that the rest were promised to be at a venue.

After they got their luggage checked and went through security, they were set out to find Jake. “He texted me he was going to get breakfast,” Whistler said, checking his phone. He leaned on the conveyor belt that was taking them to the correct gate.

Nathan had a habit of getting lost in thought in crowded places, or empty places for the record. He looked at a little girl, holding a stuffed dog. She clung to it as an only reminder of home. A boy, about seven, was holding his mother’s shirt, as she held more luggage than any of them together were, and she was navigating them to their gate. He envied how calm she looked. He was finding the gate for the boys he was in charge of, and while trying to be prepared for anything that could possibly happen. He was more stressed than he had been while studying for his SATs. 

Zach looked dead. He stared out the giant windows along the corridor that shows the runway outside. Nathan was watching him, but he didn’t know. Zach must be tired, he barely talked on the way here, and had no emotion behind his eyes right now. He still had bed head, and wore a dark blue sweatshirt that looked to be a size too big.

At the end of the travelator, there was a food court of sorts, and a group of chairs at their gate. They got situated in the seats, Nathan and Zach went to find Jake, leaving Whistler to watch their stuff.

“I can try texting him again,” Nathan suggested. “Maybe he’ll tell us which place he got food at this time.”

Zach nodded. “We should get food when we find him” he mumbled.

“Sure.You look tired, rough night?” Nathan said as he put his hand on Zach’s shoulder.

“I kept waking up all night, stayed up past my bedtime writing, and everytime I woke up it took forever to fall back asleep”

“Well, we’ve got a twelve hour flight ahead of us, maybe you can get some sleep on the plane.”

“Maybe.”

Nathan’s phone buzzed in his hand. “Jake said he’s at Cinnabon. We walked past that like a hundred times, how could we have missed him?”

“We started looking at 9:14, now it’s 9:31. We’ve been looking for seventeen minutes, it's taking us about five minutes to get to the end of this strip. We’ve walked past this 3 times almost 4 times. How could we have possibly looked past him?” Zach said turning them around. 

They circled back to the Cinnabon, and sat down to look for Jake. He’s tall, skinny, probably wearing striped pants or something; how is he this hard to find? They saw a group of older women, old enough to be their mothers, dressed in hawiian shirts and sundresses. Sitting at the table was a 20-something guy in a hawiian shirt, and striped pants.

“Jake!” Nathan yelled, getting his attention. 

“Hey, where have you been I told you where I was forever ago.” he said, turning away from the group of ladies.

“Who are these people?” Zach asked quietly.

“Oh this is Joan, her and her husband are getting their vows renewed for their 35th anniversary. Here’s her sister Margret, Maggie. This is his ex wife Lynn, who hates him…”

“Hey that’s my mom’s name,” Zach said, cutting him off.

“Did you bring some friends to come on the cruise with us?” One of the women said with a heavy Minnesota accent. Another one grabbed Nathan’s butt causing him to take a step back.

“No, these guys are in the band with me. We’re starting a UK tour this week.” Jake said, pushing Zach back to Nathan. 

“Where is your husband?” Zach asked innocently.

All of the surrounding women started laughing, until Joan said “Oh he’s off on his bachelors party, so we’re taking a girls weekend and going on a cruise.” She took a step forward, leaned into Zach, and seducingly said “And maybe pick up a couple boy toys as well.”

Nathan cringed, and Zach’s cheeks and ears turned a cherry shade of red. He was now playing with his hands, and looking down. 

“Jake we’ll be waiting at gate B-14, come meet us when y’all are done with this” Nathan said gesturing.

“No, I’ll come with you. It was nice meeting you ladies, have fun on your trip.” he waved.

As they walked away you could hear “Now look what you’ve done, made more kids uncomfortable again.”

“They were into it”

Zach was still looking down at his feet as they approached where they had left Whistler. “Hey, I’m sorry about that,” Jake said to Zach, putting his very long arm around Zach’s shoulder.

“Sorry to him, that woman just grabbed my fucking butt” Nathan spewed.

“Language” Zach warned.

They got back to the gate where they were to wait for their flight, their bags were there but Whistler was gone. “Fuck! Okay, check and make sure all are bags are here”

Whistler waltzed up, hands in his pockets, and nodded when he saw Jake was with them.

“You were supposed to look after our stuff!” Nathan yelled.

“I thought you were going to get Jake and come back. Not wander around, get lunch, maybe see a movie in your spare time, and then show up.” 

“We had some trouble finding him,” Nathan said. He was normally reasonable about most things, but not after all the stress he had been under all day.

“I had to piss”

“You went right before we left,” Nathan said seriously.

“That was forever ago”

“We left at 8:00, it is now 9:50,” Zach said, checking his watch. “My backpack isn’t here.” Zach sat on the floor in the pile of carry-ons. He sat, holding his knees, chest heaving.

“What was in your backpack, nothing expensive I hope,” Jake asked.

“My notebook, a gameboy to play on the plane, extra glasses… Shit!”

“What?”

“Nothing.” he said defeated, burying his head in his knees.

“Medicine.” Jake said with a look of realization.

Zach looked up at him with big puppy dog eyes. You could tell he didn’t want them to know, and was terribly embarrassed, as the red was back on his cheeks like earlier. He handed his glasses to Jake and wiped his eyes with his sleeve.

Jake turned his back to Zach, who now looked like the little kid Jake met him as, and he started to talk to Whistler and Nathan. “Zach has anxiety, always has. It’s mostly social anxiety, but it manifests in other ways too. He takes medicine for it, but he must not have yet so it lasted all through the flight. Don’t worry that you didn’t know, it took me five years of knowing him before he told me accidentally.”

“Eh, Zach, you know you can tell us anythi-” Whistler started.

“Dramamine!” Nathan cut off Whistler, and started rummaging through his bag.

“We’re gonna knock him out?” Whistler asked sitting next to Nathan.

“Yes, or no, doesn’t matter. It helps with motion sickness, and anxiety, and as an added bonus you might sleep, seeing as you didn’t much last night.” Nathan said frantically. 

“How do you know all of this?” Jake asked.

“You’ve met my mom right,” Nathan said.

“Hell yeah” Jake said with a wink.

“Stop it, not the time. Never the time,” he said thoroughly disgusted, “Hey Zach, look at me.” He kneeled next to Zach and touched his shoulder. “Hi.”

“Hello”

“We’re gonna go get a drink, maybe some breakfast, because we forgot to do that earlier. And then you can take some meds.”

Nathan held out his hand to help Zach up. Zach grabbed it and didn’t let go. They walked over to a McDonalds that was near, Nathan got Zach a breakfast sandwich and a milkshake, which he crushed some dramamine into and gave to Zach. He drank it. His hands were shaking as he set the cup on the table. He quickly pulled his sleeves over his hands and started picking at the inner seams. 

“Shit!”

“Language” Zach said as he got startled by Nathan’s sudden burst of anger.

“It’s 10:24”

“My pills won’t work in time”

“We need to board the plane in like five minuets.”

“Six”

“Now it’s five”

They threw away the wrappers, and ran to the gate. Whistler and Jake were waiting with all of their bags, waving them to hurry up. They showed their tickets to the lady working the stand, and walked with purpose to get to their seats. Zach’s stomach dropped when he walked on to the passenger boarding bridge, it shook beneath him when he stepped, he felt like he’d fall. He didn’t have a bag to put in his overhead compartment, nor did he have anything to distract him from taking off.

Zach and Whistler were sat next to each other in the middle, and Nathan and Jake were on the side, Nathan had the window seat.

Zach started to panic. His seatbelt made it hard to breathe, his sweater felt tight around his neck, he felt his heart beat, it made his chest bounce. He shut his eyes and tried to not think, he tried to think of something else, somewhere else, but all he could think of was falling.

“Hey Jake shouldn’t you be the one afraid of flying, I mean heights and all?” Whistler asked across an old lady that had an aisle seat.

“No, can’t fall out of a plane.”

“Planes crash,” Whistler argued.

“Please stop, that kid looks like he’s about to have a heart attack, and I should know that’s what my second husband died of. Right on top of me” the old lady said interjecting.

They looked over at Zach, whose eyes were shut tight, and his glasses were laying on his lap. You couldn’t see his eyes, but you could tell his face was puffy, and red. He violently wiped his eyes with his sleeves, and rubbed his nose hard. Both of his legs were shaking, and he focused hard on breathing; in and out.

“Hey… Bud. You are good.” Whistler said, patting Zach’s knee. “You know panic attacks can only last two hours at a time, before your body gives out due to exhaustion.”

“Stop you're scaring him.”

“I don’t think I can scare him more than he already is.”

“Switch with me” Jake offered a very uncomfortable Whistler. Jake shimmied across the old lady, and apologised for his butt being in her face.

“Oh don’t worry dear, it’s the most action I’ve had in years.” She winked.

Whistler was now next to Nathan, and Jake had room to calm Zach down. 

“Wow, you’re really not a warm and fuzzy type of person are you?” Nathan asked

“Dogs love me,” he said with a shrug.

“Hey Zach, what games were you gonna play?” 

“Mario”

“Once we get back home I’m totally gonna kick your ass at smash bros.”

“Language,” said Zach and the old lady at the same time.

“I can’t do this,” Zach whimpered.

“Do what, you’ll fall asleep in less than an hour, then who will I talk too?”

“Oh I can keep you company sweetheart,” said Jake's new favorite old lady. (Watch out Nanna)

The plane shook a little and then the stewardess came out and told everyone to put on their seat belts, and turn devices off. Jake grabbed Zach’s hand, ignoring the wetness of his sleeve, that was covered in snot and tears. The plane started to turn upwards, and everyone's ears popped. Zach still had not opened his eyes, his head was pressed into the back of the seat, and he was holding hands with Jake. In less than 20 minutes, Zach was nestled against Jake, asleep. Jake was talking to Agnes, and Whistler and Nathan were sharing earbuds watching old Disney movies.


	2. Night 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They got off the plane, but what now... boners, stuffed bunnies, def leppard, and lots of sleeping.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am taking forever to write this, so I thought I'd break it up into chapters

“Zach, Zach wake up.” Jake was nudging him with his shoulder. They were still on the plane and people were clearing out. Zach squinted and furrowed his brow, lifting his head from Jake’s shoulder.   
“What? Wait are we still flying,” his eyes got real big, and he started looking around with tired eyes.  
“No, we landed, I don’t know if you remember, but you woke up a couple times, but we kept you sedated.”  
“So we’re here.”  
“Yeah, and we gotta go before they pick us up for the return flight.” Whistler jokes.  
They helped Zach up; he was still a little drowsy and a bit more happy than most people after a 12 hour flight, with minor turbulence. Walking into the airport was like walking into a different dimension. Everything looked similar to what they had left, but it was dark and in this dimension people drove on the other side of the road. The boys dragged their bodies to the conveyor belt where their luggage would come out eventually. Nathan’s bag came first, then Whistler.   
“Wait Zach, is that your backpack?”  
“Oh shit!”  
“Yeah it is,” he said, grabbing it, and immediately checking, taking inventory. “All there.”   
“So whoever took it must have been on our flight”  
“Okay we can party, but if I go fifteen more minutes without food I might die.” Jake said with his eyes half open. “I had a drink on the plane, but I couldn’t eat ‘cause I had to hold a very large child’s head up on my shoulder.”  
A quiet “sorry” was uttered.  
They made their way over to the food court area, and got various items that they sold. Jake got some pancakes, Whistler and Zach got tacos, and Nathan a muffin and a black coffee so he would stay awake on the drive to the hotel.  
“Zach, medicine.” Jake said nodding to the backpack.  
Whistler unzipped the bag, and pulled out the little orange bottle, and slid it across the table. Zach grabbed it, without making eye contact. He opened it under the table, and threw it back into his bag before Whistler zipped it back up. He took the pill, hoping that it would try to alleviate the growing symptom of withdrawals. He felt delusional, like everything was a dream, and dizzy as all heck.  
“Hey Zach, what’s this notebook,” Whistler asked, grabbing a little black, leather bound, notebook out of Zach’s bag.  
“Put that back” Nathan said, reaching for it.  
“Journal?” Jake asked.  
“Diary” Whistler said, flipping through pages too fast to read it.  
“Please put it back, please.”  
“Wait, you have a diary?” Nathan said joining in on the bullying. “Let me see that” Nathan grabbed the book, opened it to a random page. “6:16 pm… I have indigestion. I ate 22 chicken wings at buffalo wild wings. I am writing this from the toilet, and my brother keeps knocking on the door asking what I’m doing. He takes forever in the bathroom too, I don’t know why he won’t just leave me alone right now. I wonder how many wings the record is? And where…”  
Zach grabbed the notebook back from the others. He tucked it back in the bag, picked up his trash, threw it away, and left. He wasn’t smiling or laughing along with them when he left, and his nose and ears were a crimson color.  
“Look at what you did Nathan.” Whistler said with fake disappointment.  
“Wait I didn’t mean to be mean”   
“Whistler, you’re being an asshole” Jake kicked from under the table.  
“Oh I’m not the one bullying the kid.”  
“I really didn’t want to bully him”  
“You didn’t. Whistler shut-the-fuck-up”  
“Hey! I’m not the one who invaded Zach’s privacy.” Whistler mumbled with a smirk.  
“I’m going to go find him, do you guys wanna meet at the rental car?” Jake asked, throwing his wrappers away, and running off in the direction that Zach left in .  
“You don’t think he’s actually mad at me do you,” Nathan questioned. He looked like a child in this moment, not the only adult in the group, who has been taking them to where they needed to be this whole trip.  
Jake saw where Zach was headed, even if he hadn’t Jake would know where to find him. A waiting area, with rows of chairs. Scattered throughout were people. There was a woman on the phone, tapping her foot. An elderly couple sat two seats down, the woman’s head was resting on the man's shoulder. In the corner of the giant room, right next to the floor to ceiling windows, was Zachary Sutton. He was sitting on the floor looking towards the night, out on the streets in a town near London. There are masses of buildings, gray and old. Orange-y street lamps illuminate the cobblestone paths that branch off from the roads. His face was lit up too, with that same glow.   
Jake sat down next to Zach; as they looked outside, neither of them talked for a little bit. Zach held his knees close to his chest, his chin resting on his knees. You could see the reflections of the passing cars in his glasses, and also the finger prints on the black frames.  
“I think Nathan and Whistler must have the car by now, if you wanna go meet them.”   
“Yeah, I just wish we were at the hotel already. Just snap, bing bang boom- we’re there.”  
Jake smiled at that; his big toothy grin, eyes closed and everything. He helped Zach up of the floor, as they meandered over to the parking lot outside.  
They found Whistler and Nathan after a couple minutes of looking. The van they were renting was newer than the one they left at home. It was white, big, but not as bulky as theirs. The back doors were swung open, and Nathan was sitting on the edge; Whistler was sitting on the floor cross-legged. They were talking.   
“Hey, you found him.” Whistler exclaimed to the pair walking up to the van.  
“Yup… and how was getting the van?”  
“That guy was a fucking asshole, he called us stupid Americans. I accidentally asked how many miles away he thought the hotel was, and he laughed, because I said miles.” Nathan spat.  
“Total butthole,” Whistler added.  
“Are we ready to head out?”  
“Yeah, we can dip if you’re ready.”  
They closed the doors to the white van, and started driving out of this underground parking garage. The lines indicating which floor they were on and where to go were illuminated orange, and the inside of the van was dark. Nathan drove, and Jake was in the passenger's seat, in charge of the music and navigation. The other two lay in the back, Whistler’s head on the window looking up at the stars; Zach’s head was resting on Whistler’s lap, as he was fast asleep.  
Jake had music on, quietly. He loves classic rock, so that’s what they listened to. Queen, Led Zeppelin, Elton John, and Def Leppard.  
“You know, when I was a kid, I wasn’t allowed to listen to rock?” Nathan whispered to Jake.  
“Really, why not?”  
“My Dad’s a pastor, one day I called him to ask his opinions on some CDs, which was a mistake. After that he went through every song, and album I owned and we had to discuss what I was and was not allowed to listen to.”  
“That sucks, dude. I can’t imagine what I would have done if my parents didn’t let me listen to classic rock. It’s what got me into music in the first place. Doing Guns N Roses covers for MN School of rock was how I met Zach in the first place, or actually his older brother, Alex. That dudes a fucking legend.” Jake had turned the music down so you could only pick out a few notes, their dull whispers were barely even heard. “What CDs?”  
“What?”  
“Which CDs did you want opinions on?” Jake asked.  
“Oh, I just wanted to ask him which was better, Van Halen or Def Leppard,” Nathan laughed. “I still haven’t heard either of them.”  
“... Van Halen is amazing if you like shredding, but I think you would like Def Leppard more. Phil Collen, and Steve Clark alternate lead, and vocals range from 80’s rock to ballads. Oh and the drummer, Rick Allen, lost an arm; so they rigged up all these pedals to different drums and now he plays with his feet.”  
“I wish I had known you when I was 13, that would have made music stores a lot easier.”  
“ Ha, thanks. I try.” Jake turned the radio up to a volume they could actually hear, and he put in Hysteria by Def Leppard.  
They drove for a little over a half an hour, with Jake reading out occasional directions. A bumpy road had woken up the two in the backseat, just in time for them pulling into the parking lot of the hotel.  
Standing three stories, at the corner of a street, was their hotel. Nathan pulled up to the front of the building, car still running, as Jake ran in to go get a room.   
A few minutes passed by, and a couple more after that, then Jake finally returned.   
“Yeah that didn’t take forever or anything” Zach said passive aggressively.  
“Sorry, the guy at the front desk was… He was nice,” Jake said starting to walk around the back of the van to help get their bags out. “We started talking, then he invited me to a bar tomorrow, that's supposed to be good. He also said they don’t card.” Jake said directed towards Zach.  
“Sounds cool” Nathan chimed in.  
“Was this a ‘Hey come to this thing it will be fun’ or a ‘You should come with me to this thing, I’d love to see you there’?” Zach asked.  
“What’s the difference?” Jake retorted.  
“Eye fucking; eye fucking is the difference,” Whistler said.  
“I mean he was kinda hot so…” Jake said.  
“Can we just get to the room?” Nathan said dramatically, throwing his head back with exhaustion.  
They lugged their bags up to the room a few at a time, before the trunk was empty. In the room was a bathroom immediately to the left of the door. A T.V. sat across from the beds; two beds were leaned against the wall one was much smaller, and much less comfortable than the other. Floral wallpaper decorated the upper halves of the walls, and brown sheets were flung across the beds.  
Jake set his bag on the bigger bed, the one closer to the door. “Zach and I can share this bed, you two can take the other.”  
“No fucking way we’re sleeping on the smaller bed.” Nathan said.  
“Yeah, you can feel the springs.” Whistler whined.  
“ We can switch the beds every other night.” Jake shrugged. “I just thought that you two were smaller, so smaller bed.”  
“I can’t wait to share that tiny bed with you, Jake.” Zach said clasping his hands together under his chin and blinking profusely.   
“And I you, Darling.”  
Whistler took his shirt off and flopped into the bed that was directly under the window. The others took turns in the bathroom changing and brushing their teeth and stuff. Zach had a tee shirt and red, plaid pajama pants on. Jake only had on a tank top and boxer briefs on. Nathan walked out of the bathroom in a sweater that was two sizes too big, it was grey and the sleeves hung far off his hands, he had boxers on underneath that you could only see the edge of because of how long his sweater was.   
Nathan tucked himself under the blanket and had his back turned toward Whis. Whistler was starfishing atop the bed, with his arms tucked under the pillow. Their legs were overlapping and they definitely weren't going to get too cold in their sleep.  
Zach and Jake were facing each other, but Zach had already fallen asleep. It was nearing 10, but he had opted for sleep trying to chase jet lag away. Jake got up trying not to disrupt the kid, whose hands were in between his knees and his face had a peaceful sleepy grin on it. He went over to his bag and picked out a stuffed rabbit. He took it back to bed, without noticing Nathan was still awake.  
“Hey, what’s that?”  
“Stuffed rabbit, I sleep with it when I am away from home. I have two rabbits back at home, names are Pepper and Roo.”  
Nathan nodded, “Rabbits freak me out.” He smiled, then rolled over to the other side and in a short time they had all fallen asleep.  
Hours ticked by before the bright yellow light of the morning shone through the thin curtains that wavered in the A.C.  
Whistler woke up earlier than any of the others. He always wakes up early, to go for a run, and be back in time to make breakfast, but this morning the jet lag was hitting hard. Way too hard for a run, so opting for a shower seemed like a suitable substitute.   
Getting out of bed quietly was difficult; he swung one leg over to the floor, and shimmied off the bed careful not to pull the covers off of the tiny bed Nathan was clung to. Whistler was still in the jeans he had worn yesterday, he only remembers laying down, and waking up this morning. The second his head hit the pillow he must have been out like a light. He hadn’t even remembered to charge his phone.  
Now off the bed, he sleepily found his way over to the electrical socket. “Ah Dang!” he whisper shouted. The plug wasn’t the usual American, tiny face-lookin’, hole. He had forgotten to bring an adapter, rather he hadn’t even thought about the fact that he might need a different fucking type of plug to charge his phone.  
His phone’s screen slightly cracked, and the battery life of 32, he threw it (gently) on to the bed where he had slept.   
He grabbed the toiletries bag that he had thankfully remembered. In the bathroom he set the bag on the counter. It was small and only held a few necessary items, like a toothbrush and deodorant. It had little watermelon slices decorating the outer fabric.  
After the shower, he flushed the toilet, because it would no longer ruin the temperature of the water. He wrapped his towel around his waist, and quietly unlocked the door.   
“Morning” Nathan grumbled, rubbing his eye to clear the sleep-blurred vision.  
“Shit, I’m sorry for waking you up.”  
“Nah, it’s probably better for the jet lag that I wake up at a normal time.”  
“That’s the same thing I thought,” Whistler tip toed over to their side of the room as to not need the full volume of their voices.   
Nathan leaned on his elbows to sit up a bit, “When did that happen?” he said, looking up and down Whistler’s naked boy flesh.  
“When did what happen?”  
“You’ve got a fucking six pack, dude.” He said with sarcastic disappointment.  
“I don’t know, been running and stuff.” Whistler replied with a shrug. “Hey, you didn’t by any chance remember to bring an adapter for the wall plugs did you?”  
“No, but now that you mention it I think I saw one in Zach’s bag, when we were going through it yesterday.” Nathan said plucking his phone off the nightstand that he and Jake were sharing. “Ugh” he groaned, realising that he too needed to charge.  
“Am I allowed to get it?” Whistler asked, questioning how morally sound it would be to go through his bag again.  
“Yeah, I mean we already know what’s in there.” He shrugged.  
“He was so mad yesterday when we did it. I mean normally I would be fine with pissing him off, but this room is small, and we have to live in close quarters for a week. I can’t deal with his complaining for that long, I don’t think.” Whistler said sitting on the edge of the bed in defeat.  
“I’ll grab it, then we won’t be fighting over who uses it first once everyone wakes up,” Nathan said as he tossed the sheets off his little body.  
“Smart, that’s smart.”  
Nathan padded over to the bag that was on the far side of the bed. He bent down, inches from Zach, who was soundly sleeping next to him. He slowly unzipped the bag, which prolonged the noise it was making, but doing it carefully seemed more respectful. The charger was laying on top “thank God”.   
“Get it?” Whistler whisper yelled across the room.  
“Yeah,” The second Nathan tried to stand up, he lost his footing and kicked over the bag, with a thud. “Ow, FUCK!” he said in the loudest voice he could, while still considering it a whisper.  
Jake rolled over, and flopped a lanky leg over Zach’s. Whistler tried to stifle laughs, to no avail. He bit his hand, which was shocking enough to get him to stop.  
“Why are you laughing?”  
“Jake’s pitching a tent, while cuddling Zach.”  
“What,” he spat out the “t”.  
“He’s fully erect, and Zach’s holding on to him.” Whistler could not have said more obviously.  
“Why were you looking?”  
“How could you not?”  
Nathan looked over across the bed, and sure enough his eyes met… something. And Zach was clung to Jake’s arm, like a sloth to a tree branch.   
“Should we wake them up,” Nathan asked, while his eyes were still fixated on a genital… general area of the bed.  
“Nah, we can get breakfast and leave these two alone, ya’ know to… bang things out.”  
Nathan averted his balls, eye balls… he averted his eyes. Whistler plugged his phone in and they slipped out the door without waking the others. Nathan held on to the room key, and they walked down the hall that was too reminiscent of the one in the shining for Nathan. The elevator dinged and the doors crept open, the second they put their weight shifted into the room, it creaked, a long lingering sound. Nathan pushed the first floor button, and Whistler leaned against the back wall, gripping the perimeter rail tight. He sighed heavily as the elevator lowered, and the feeling that his stomach was dropping persisted.   
They hit the bottom floor, the elevator dinged, but the doors didn’t open. Another heavy sigh from Whistler, and followed by a sharp inhale this time.   
“What’s wrong with you?” Nathan scrunched his nose.  
“Get the doors open please.” Whistler said breathing repeatedly in through his nose and out through his mouth. His hands waved, gesturing to open the doors.  
Nathan pushed the “door open” button and they were on the correct floor. “Must be old,” Nathan shrugged.   
The end of the morning’s continental breakfast was less than desirable, but after traveling for the past 24 hours, it was nice to sit and eat. Whistler grabbed a donut, and a glass of chocolate milk. Nathan had some eggs, bacon, and a cup of coffee with copious amounts of sugar added. They sat at a table that showed a tv in the corner. Golf was on. An old man watched intently.   
“How’s your…” Whistler asked with a mouthful of his second donut.  
Nathan exhaled through his nose as sort of a pseudo laugh. “It’s good, or as good as lukewarm coffee in a hotel at 9 am is.”  
Now it was Whistler’s turn to laugh, not because it was funny, but just because.  
“Hey… can I ask you something weird?” Nathan said, furrowing his brow, and looking at his hands; with which he was playing under the table.   
“I guess…” Whistler said leaning forward from his relaxed position.  
“Is… Fuck I can’t say it. This is way to fucking weird.”  
“Nah go ahead, won’t make fun, I swear.” He had put one hand over his heart, and the other was raised.  
Nathan grabbed his hand, lowering it, and looked around, “You saw Jake’s…” He looked down to his own … to gesture, “it’s not like… average right?”  
“Nah, I think average is something like five, six inches. Dude, you’re good” He said waving it off.  
“Okay, yeah. Are you done? We should go take food back to the room.” Nathan rushed the sentence and tripped over a few words. His face was hot, and his stomach felt like it was burning from the inside out, but if he was red. Whistler didn’t mention it.  
They grabbed a box of cereal, and a muffin that Zach and Jake could fight over later. The boys took the stairs back up to the room, and clicked the card in the door. The shower was running, and when they walked in they saw Zach spaced out, sitting on the bed.  
“You good?” Whistler asked.  
“Huh?” Zach said diverting his attention to the two that had just walked in.  
“We stole your charger, or plug thing this morning. I hope that’s okay.” Nathan informed.  
“Oh yeah, sure. What’s that? Did you bring us food?”  
“Yeah, we have a stale muffin and dry cereal, take your pick.” Nathan said holding the two options out to him.  
“What kind of muffin?’’  
“Chocolate chip, or really old blueberry.”  
“I’ll have the cereal, it also won’t give me indigestion before the show tonight” Zach grabbed for the tiny cereal box.  
A moaning sound filled the room. “What the fuck, it’s 10 am. Why are the neighbors doing it now.”  
The room fell silent for a couple moments, the three boys listening, waiting to hear another pleasure filled growl. And then it happened, a shout sung through the thin walls of the hotel. It was feminine, and beautiful, and instantly recognizable.   
“Is our lead singer, singing himself to completion?”  
“Yup.”  
“Turn the T.V. Turn the T.V. ON!”  
“Ungh… fuck…” and the shower stopped.  
“We were too late,” and the three erupted into fake sobs.  
About a minute later Jake came out of the bathroom dressed in some jeans and an old man sweater, tucked in. He looked around, but no eye contact was received. “Are you guys okay?” He asked as he cocked his head.  
“I don’t think I can ever be okay again,” Zach wailed, “first you… rubbed your... up against me, and now I just heard you… finish.”  
Whistler snorted.  
“We need to work on the sleeping arrangements, please.” Zach begged.  
“Yeah, the tiny bed is like sleeping on the floor,” Whistler said.  
“And for whoever ends up sleeping with Zach, he will cuddle you; It’s cute and all fun and dandy, but he is very warm. It’s like sleeping with a space heater,” Jake said, and looked over to Zach as sort of a sorry, but no eye contact was returned.  
“Whistler just layed on top of the bed, so I stole all the blankets from him. It was freezing sleeping next to the window,” Nathan said.  
“I guess it’s settled then.” Zach piped up.  
“How did you come to a conclusion from that?” Jake asked.  
“Well… Jake was really hot last night, and Nathan said it was cold next to the window, so Jake should sleep next to the window. I like to… be closer to people so I should get the big bed with Nathan because he was cold, and I could heat his little body up, that is if you don’t mind me… cuddling you?” Nathan shook his head.  
“And where will I sleep, all cuddled up with boner boy?” Whistler chided.  
“Not exactly, you did say that sleeping on the little bed was like sleeping on the floor, and you don’t need blankets anyway.”  
“The floor?” Whistler asked.  
“Yeah, only if that’s okay though.”  
“Sure”


	3. The Forgotten Wallet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They go to a pub, and then a liquor store.

That night, after opening for Modest Mouse, they sluggishly packed up their things and hopped in the van to go back to the hotel. GPS helped them find their way, and they went up to the room to get ready to go out.   
Zach walked out of the bathroom wearing a button up shirt… on top of a button up shirt. And Whistler decided to stay home, to try and get some sleep or whatever.   
It was Friday night, and loads of people were walking the streets, everyone was going in different directions, like that crosswalk in Japan. The three of them walked for about 5 to 10 minutes before they hit the the pub they were supposed to meet Jake's “new friend” at.   
The pub was small on the inside, but a decent amount of people were there; tables lined the walls and were almost filled, and the back corner was open, and playing music to dance to. The three boys went in and sat at the bar that was initially hidden due to people surrounding it. A girl, from the sanctuary that is behind the bar, walked over and asked, “ Hey Sweetheart, can I get you and your friends anything to start off with?”   
Jake and Zach both looked at eachother, and then at her, pointed at themselves, and asked “Me?”, but she just shook her head and ran her finger along the collar of Nathan’s shirt. His face turned red, and he immediately tried to tug at his shirt to loosen his collar so he could breathe.   
“... I’ll take a whiskey, neat.”   
“Vodka soda.” Jake nodded in.  
“One beer please.” Zach added in.   
“ You boys don’t mind if I card you? You barely look 17.”  
Zach elbowed Jake, he’d said that they wouldn’t card here.  
Nathan handed the lady his ID, after scrambling to find it.  
“21!?” she asked, surprised, “And American, I haven’t seen too many American boys here.”  
Jake’s hand wiggled it’s way into his pocket, fighting against his tight jeans. He opened the trifold, and showed the woman his license. She passed him his drink the second he got his wallet back in his pocket.  
“And what about you?” She said sliding over to Zach.  
“I don’t… I must have forgotten; I’m sorry.” He said, hands still fumbling in his pockets, frustrated, like a child brushing their hair before school.  
“Hey, it’s okay darling, I can get you a water or something, if you’d like. And I might have to ask you to stay away from the bar, just in case the boss comes back.”  
Zach looked to Nathan to answer for him, how a mother must answer for her children at the doctor’s.   
“Yeah, he can take a water, and we’ll sit over there,” Nathan said, pointing toward the booths.  
Zach looked at Nathan, smiled, then looked at his feet, which were barely touching the ground, due to the stools height. The woman slid a water with ice and a cute little umbrella in it, over to Zach. And in return, she received a genuine smile.  
They all walked over to one of the only empty booths available; sitting right next to a trash can, with an ashtray on top. Jake cornered Zach into one side of the table, Nathan on the other.   
“Hey I think the bartender’s into you” Jake said to Nathan.  
“No, where did you even get that from?”  
“She kept touching you, and she liked that she made you nervous.”  
“She did not make me nervous,” Nathan retorted.  
“Yes she did, but that doesn’t mean you wanna fuck or anything. It only means that she’s a pretty girl that anybody would be attracted to.”  
Zach sat and sipped on his tiny glass of water, while listening to this conversation go on for another couple minutes, until he piped up “I finished my water”.   
Nathan downed his second drink and stood up, ”I think I’m going to head back to the hotel, it’s too loud in here to talk.”  
“Can I come with?” Zach asked, shoving Jake off the bench.  
“Sure, Jake, are you gonna stick it out?” Nathan asked, not wanting to leave his young, drunk friend alone in a bar waiting for a strange man.  
“Yeah, I’ll give it til 10.”  
“M’kay, give one of us a call if they are secret sex trafficers, wanting to sell you to a dominatrix in the middle east or something.”  
“Will do.”  
Nathan walked back over to the bar, set their empty cups on the counter, and started pushing their way through the crowd. Zach subtly grabbed the edge of Nathan’s long tee-shirt, so he wouldn’t get lost. When Nathan got through the door, he learned just how much alcohol he had previously consumed. He was slightly buzzed. I mean what would you expect from a boy, who never drank at home, who was 5 ft 6, with shoes on, and weighed on the lesser side of a hundred and fucking something pounds. The ground moved with his steps, and his hands felt really warm. So, Zach hailed a cab.  
They sat in the back of the cab, talking louder than they should have been, whether it was due to hearing loss from the pub or Nathan being a little drunk will never be known.  
“Hey can we get off here,” Nathan yelled to the cab driver.  
“It’ll be 7 pound 50.”  
“Thanks,” he said, passing the money forward.  
“Why did we get out here?” Zach asked.  
“Liquor store… you’re too young to drink-back home, and you couldn’t-drink here, so…”   
“So, you’re gonna get me drunk?”  
“Me and Whis.”  
“Whis and I,” Zach mumbled.  
“If I dare him to do it, he won’t turn it down.”  
They got out onto the street, a cool air hit their faces, sobering them from the stuffy cab. Zach stepped up the steep curb, holding out a hand to assist Nathan up. The contrast of light in the liquor store was a shock, it felt like the opening lines of the book The Outsiders. The fluorescent lights shone off the bottles that lined the shelves. A display with barrels and fancy looking bottles sat in the middle of the store, but the outer edges were what they were drawn to. The bell attached to the door rang as they walked in. They strolled in; Zach walked in as if someone had told him to act natural, cause his crush was near, and Nathan walked with poor posture that perfectly matched his drunken, slurring speech.  
“Do you even know what to get?” Zach asked, looking over his shoulder, at the man behind the counter.  
“I’ll get a decent whiskey, and a cheap wine for Whis.” He said, scanning the labels.  
Zach kept checking his phone, maybe for something to do, or he could have been checking the time. He does that a lot.  
Nathan picked the plucked bottles off the shelf, and took them over to the cash register. The man’s name was Robert. He scanned their bottles, and asked them for an ID for the second time that night. This time though Zach was not stricken with anxiety, but rather with excitement that they were actually going to get away with this, but then again he could possibly get drunk for the first time in the coming hour.  
Robert had a pin on his shirt, a Hamilton pin, right there on the collar. He looked like an overgrown theatre kid, who hadn’t slept in days, but hey… maybe he hasn’t.   
“That’ll be 42.27”   
Nathan paid, and they took the paper bags out to the street. The bag was heavy. It made Nathan lean to the side with the weight of it.  
“We should get to the hotel in 8 mins, if you want me to shoot Whistler a text to make sure he’s awake, and ya’ know not naked.”  
“Nah, I like excitement in my life,” Nathan said with a slight laugh. “Speaking of, have you seen Whistler shirtless recently?”  
“No, I can’t say I have.”  
“That fucker is jacked!”  
“No shit?” Zach asked, giving in to Nathan’s bad habit of swearing.  
Nathan laughed. “Hey, remember this morning with the whole Jake thing.”  
“Oh my gosh, don’t remind me.”  
“Um… Jake’s uh, dick isn’t…”  
“Oh it’s huge if that’s what you’re asking.” Zach said.  
“Thank Jesus!”  
“Why were you asking?” Zach asked, with serious curiosity.  
“Well this morning, I saw him… when you guys rolled over, then I asked Whistler, he didn’t seem to think that… you know, that Jake was like seriously packing. And he had told me at breakfast, that like 6 inches is like… like normal, but I didn’t believe him, but I also didn’t want to google it.”   
Zach pulled out his phone. And three seconds later, he said “3.5 inches”.  
“What?”  
“Average is three and a half inches,”  
“Oh, okay.” Nathan said, and his shoulders relaxed all tension that was being held from the previous conversation.  
“And I think the average might even be lower, but Jake is an outlier.”  
Nathan smiled, like a full smile, with teeth.  
As they turned the corner, Zach said “You never had sleepovers with Jake in middle school.”  
“Huh, what does that have to do with anything?”  
“Well like I was a year younger,”  
“You still are.”  
“But it was more noticeable when your friends are your brothers' friends, and they are 13 or 14, and you are 11. And I was like 4ft 9 with shoes on, and they had to shave and stuff. When we were like 11, and 12 I was tiny, and Jake looked like he could have been my father. It was… an interesting time.”  
They got to the elevator, Nathan set down the bag, and shook out his hand. The handles had made indentions in his hand, so Zach took the bags for the last stretch of their journey. They knocked before entering the hotel room, put the key in, heard the click, and entered.


End file.
